30 June 2011
Pakistani troops backed by jets and helicopter gunships have killed 40 militants in a restive tribal area bordering Afghanistan in the past three days, a military commander said Thursday.Brigadier Aftab Ahmad told AFP by telephone that his forces had destroyed 17 militant hideouts in the Baizai region under his command in the lawless tribal area of Mohmand. "Militants were regularly attacking our posts on the Afghanistan border at Shonkari and Mithai...
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28 June 2011
A report released by the US State Department suggests that militants in Pakistan use children to fight or carry out suicide attacks. In a statement delivered with the Trafficking in Persons report, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said: “Every year, we come together to release this report, to take stock of our progress, to make suggestions, and to refine our methods. Today, we are releasing a new report that ranks 184 countries, including...
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TTP Commander Leaves Group amid Disapproval of Civilian Killings
27 June 2011
A Pakistani Taliban warlord who claims to control hundreds of foot soldiers said Monday he had broken with the militia and would form his own anti-American group along the Afghan border. Fazal Saeed described himself as the leader of Pakistan’s umbrella Tehreek-i-Taliban (TTP) faction in the tribal district of Kurram, but said he had run out of patience with the network for killing civilians. TTP has claimed a series of high-profile attacks...
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Pakistan's Border Regions Vulnerable amid Planned US Withdrawal
27 June 2011
Fighting across the Pakistan-Afghanistan border will overshadow talks when the two countries meet along with the United States on Tuesday to map out plans for reconciliation with the Taliban. Pakistan on Monday rejected Afghan allegations it had fired 470 rockets into Afghanistan over the past three weeks, saying only that "a few accidental rounds" may have crossed the border when it pursued militants who had attacked its security forces. But the...
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Summary of Recent Security Incidents
27 June 2011
At least 12 people have been killed after a police station in northwestern Pakistani came under attack from suspected Taliban fighters. Three explosions sent plumes of smoke into the air at the Kolachi police station in the Dera Ismail Khan district during the assault, which prompted a standoff on Saturday. Ten policemen were killed and another five wounded in the assault. Two of the attackers were also killed. Ahsanullah Ahsan, a spokesman for the...
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Kabul Calls for End to Cross-Border Attacks from Pakistan as "Artillery Shells Kill Four Children"
24 June 2011
Afghanistan on Friday complained to Pakistan for a second time in a week about its shelling of Afghan villages in which four children were killed, fighting that threatens to raise regional tensions as the United States begins a gradual troop withdrawal. The Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs first complained on Monday about Pakistan shelling soon after an assault by Pakistani forces drove militants across the border. The two sides blame each other...
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Seized Phone Offers Clues to Bin Laden's Pakistani Links
24 June 2011
The cellphone of Osama bin Laden’s trusted courier, which was recovered in the raid that killed both men in Pakistan last month, contained contacts to a militant group that is a longtime asset of Pakistan’s intelligence agency, senior American officials who have been briefed on the findings say. The discovery indicates that Bin Laden used the group, Harakat-ul-Mujahedeen, as part of his support network inside the country, the officials...
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Summary of Recent Security Incidents
24 June 2011
At least five persons were killed and three others injured as fighting between rival armed groups intensified in Tirah valley of Khyber Agency on Thursday. Also, a khasadar was killed by unidentified assailants in Jawaki area of Frontier Region of Kohat on Thursday. Sources said that volunteers of Zakhakhel Qaumi Lashkar and members of banned militant organisation Lashkar-i-Islam traded heavy fire in Tora Vela of Tirah. They said that volunteers...
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Military Investigates Additional Four Army Majors for Hizb ut-Tahrir Links
22 June 2011
Four majors in the Pakistani army are being investigated for alleged links with banned extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, the army has said. Army spokesman Gen Athar Abbas told the BBC the men were not under arrest but were being interrogated in connection with the case of Brig Ali Khan. He was detained last month and is also accused of links to Hizb ut-Tahrir. The army says it will not tolerate support for extremism within its ranks. Brig Khan's family...
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Militants Kill At Least Six in Khyber District Ambush
22 June 2011
At least five militants and a tribal policeman were killed in a rebel ambush and a bomb attack at checkpoints in Pakistan's lawless tribal belt on Wednesday, officials said. The ambush took place before dawn at the Sarband checkpoint just outside the town of Bara in Khyber district, part of Pakistan's tribal region on the Afghan border where Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked networks have bases. "More than 30 militants launched a two-pronged attack on...
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